20 Aug 2026
What the Algonquin Taught Me About the Novel
Welcome into Flight School:
In this post, Maya C. Popa (https://substack.com/profile/63627356-maya-c-popa) and I talk about the Foundations Intensive (https://www.consciouswriterscollective.com/prose/) I’ll be teaching for her Conscious Writers Collective (https://www.consciouswriterscollective.com/) this September.
First about Maya: She is a terrific lady. Whip-smart (as Tay Hohoff said about Harper Lee). Funny. Bursting with style, energy and purpose. And, last, no-nonsense about the art and craft of creative writing.
Then comes her professional credits: The author of If You Love That Lady (https://bookshop.org/p/books/if-you-love-that-lady-poems-maya-c-popa/ef0710363d80e66d?ean=9781324124566&next=t) (W. W. Norton, 2026), Wound Is the Origin of Wonder (https://www.amazon.com/Wound-Origin-Wonder-Maya-Popa/dp/1324021365), and American Faith (https://www.sarabandebooks.org/all-titles/p/american-faith-maya-catherine-popa). Her work is published in The New Yorker, Poetry, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, Granta, The Guardian, and elsewhere. And, she’s the Poetry Editor of Publishers Weekly, a teacher in the undergraduate and MFA in Paris programs at NYU.
Maya and I found each other here on Substack, where I’ve been generally cheering on her honesty and hard work. One day, we got to talking about my foundations program and pretty soon, I was building a version for her remarkable Conscious Writers Collective. How could I not?
In short, CWC is a new kind of institution built around the life of the writer rather than the duration of a degree — combining live programming, an ever-growing archive, and a global community of serious writers committed to the work.
Bottomline: CWC overflows with talent and Maya’s integrity.
In this interview, Maya asks some key questions about my journey as a writer and a teacher.
I was delighted to answer.
Where it all began:
When Blackbird (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Blackbird/Jennifer-Lauck/9780671042561) came out in 2000, my then-agent elbowed me to write fiction. I wasn’t ready. “But your career,” she said. “Think about your career.”
So, I wrote an awful novel all about dreams.
“The worst piece of drivel I’ve ever read,” the agent said had me fly to New York and meet a developmental editor at the Algonquin. Yes, that Algonquin.
There I sat in that beautiful old lounge surrounded by the ghosts of some of the most interesting writers, and the editor talked about the rewrite using terms I’d never heard and didn’t understand. While I took copious notes, all I could think was, “No. I can’t do this. I don’t get a word of what she’s saying.”
I wrote and published three more memoirs and eventually signed up for an MFA in hopes I’d finally learn everything I needed about fiction.
When it was over, I learned how to rid myself of $50,000 but still knew nothing.
Never give up:
Post MFA, I started a story “think tank” with a group of talented fellows in various stages of their own projects. In a dank upper room of a freezing cold building—the very opposite of the Algonquin—we tore down novels and memoirs. And soon they brought in teaching texts on structure, antagonistic forces and plot.
“Let’s talk about this,” they’d say. And we did.
Those fellows included Lindsey Lee Johnson (https://www.lindseyleejohnson.com/), Kate Hope Day (https://www.katehopeday.com/if-then), Ruth Warnier (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13804788.Ruth_Wariner), Jody Little (https://jodyjlittle.com/), and Becky Ellis (https://www.beckyellis.net/). All published now.
After about four years, the teachings formalized into the Bones of Storytelling which became the core of my own school, The Blackbird Studio for Writers (https://blackbirdstudiopdx.com/), founded in 2015.
What I’ve learned over the course of the journey is that the spirit of the Algonquin—that is, the collective thinking and gathering and talking—is what matters. And I’ve never stopped with that approach. Over these years, I’ve taught Bones at least two hundred times around the US and in Paris. I love Bones for one reason: It answers EVERY question I have about story. Finally.
Take Foundations at CWC this Fall:
September 12 through December 19, 2026 is a semester of learning on Saturday morning. 8 a.m. PST.
CWC classes will be live on Zoom with lessons, handouts, slides, group discussions and work time.
And again, I built the teaching specifically for CWC. This Bones will be unlike any version of this course I’ve taught before because Maya’s writers are unique: Poets who want to write fiction. Novelists on their second and third books. Writers who are serious about the long game.
If you’re a CWC member, I’ll see you in September.
If you’re not, think about becoming one.
Alternatively, you can always take Bones with me on the regularly scheduled Studio program:
Blackbird Studio Bones Class
October 12 – December 14, 2026
Tuesday - 10:00 a.m. – noon PST
Live on Zoom. Beginners to advanced. All welcome.
No matter what, the first class of Bones is always free (below). Watch and see what happens when this teaching lands on your story.
Thanks to Maya and thanks to everyone here on Flight School. I hope to see you in one of these terrific classes very soon,
Jennifer 🐦⬛
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